Unilever Tops Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2014

Unilever is the top sustainability leader in the Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2014, published by DNV GL, for the second consecutive year.

Holcim, Intel and Nestle follow tied for second position, with Diageo ranking third.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices World 2014 published last week also ranked Unilever the most sustainable company in its industry.

Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2014 (TVR 2014) assesses the sustainability performance of the world’s largest companies. It evaluates how well companies understand their risks and opportunities, and how prepared they are to create future business value.

This year’s report also says economy-wide action is required to not deplete natural resources. This requires a “paradigm shift in how we do business” and only a handful of companies are preparing for it, says Dave Knight, sustainability director for DNV GL.

The TVR finds that the majority of the 45 companies studied have now embedded an approach to sustainability into their business strategy, although few are actively using that strategy to grow their business.

Key findings:

• Only half of the companies analyzed have meaningful SMART targets against material issues.
• Sector leaders such as Unilever, Microsoft and Nestle are utilizing sustainability innovations to drive future growth and competitive advantage.
• Too many companies are still failing to integrate sustainability risks and opportunities into their risk management approaches.
• The companies rated in TVR 2014 are all seen as sustainability leaders, yet the average score was still under 70 percent. This shows that even the leaders have some way to go.